President Barack Obama needs House Speaker John Boehner’s help to muscle a jobs bill through Congress, but he’s betting that Boehner needs the win just as badly.

The White House strategy rests on the risky assumption that Obama can sell Boehner on a new political reality: With voters desperate for jobs, neither leader can afford to do nothing.

... the administration’s belief is fueling the White House game plan on jobs, an all-out effort by Obama, Cabinet officials and the Democratic campaign committees to push Republicans into an untenable political position that forces them to act on more than just minor elements of the president’s plan.

The White House expects the Republican rank and file to fight the president’s plan, but it predicts that Boehner will eventually realize that his party would benefit from a bipartisan deal just as much as Democrats.

Or maybe it's just crazy. Boehner might go for some very small packages to avoid the charge of total obstruction, but there is no way he's going to go big on a bipartisan jobs bill.

Boehner knows that there are people standing behind him that just wait for the right moment to cut his throat. He will with high probability be primaried in any case. His only chance of survival is to get Obama to fold again. That means to get all the bad parts of the bill through while not allowing the slightest positive effect to come from it that could be to Obama's advantage. If Obama does not fold, nothing will get done (apart from accusing Obama 24/7 of being unreasonable, inflexible out to destroy what is left of America etc.)

The rest of the Democrats are treating the bill like a barrel of toxic waste -- not a single cosponsor in either house.

So it's silly to talk about a bipartisan deal. So far the bipartisan consensus is that the bill is radioactive. Why would the Republicans act on any part of a Democratic bill that even the Democrats won't touch with a 10 foot pole?